Hey all! My first time Gaming in a while, though I was able to run an Alfheim based one shot (Eyes of Sett) for some family over last winter holiday. Have some time off so gonna run a one shot Warp Shell game for my usual weekly DnD squad.
Want to go scifi for a change and I guess like most people dip into ICRPG. I’m throwing out a few questions for some help coming up with some prep.
I own Master edition and don’t see much exactly about the Xevos. It seems like a “elder race” type of trope but not really a specific race? How do you all run them? I was thinking of converting them to be a type of space elves or like the Eldar for people who know Warhammer. I know it’s not really necessary for this particular adventure but I like to have a base idea of the backdrop of the world when I explain it to my players (like who made the warp shells)
For the adventure, it seems almost totally lacking for a social aspect as written. I was thinking of adding two very sparse npcs. Maybe like a scientist reptoid who wants to harness the dark star energy and will turn into the gargant and then maybe the captain who left some logs that the party finds at command which implicates the scientist. Thinking theyll meet the scientist at the start, he’ll lead them to command, he’ll quickly get mag key and escape to the science bay where he morphs. It isn’t like the point of the adventure, but maybe adds a bit more to get them invested in the station if they are betrayed by the one npc they actually meet lol.
It’s a one shot like I said so all the players are game for a more linear type setup. Gonna be get in, find out secret of dark star, escape and/or blow up star.
What do you guys think? How have you run it? Did you add any npcs?
Sounds like a great time! By all means, make it your own. I don’t think there’s any wrong way to run Red Sword. The key to me is keeping mounting pressure on the PCs (dark star rolls), enemy ambushes, and no easy way into the science lab for answers right off the jump. Otherwise, the rest is the artist’s discretion.
Once you have run it, please circle back for after action.
Thanks for the input! Remembering to not forget timers when everything else is going on sometimes escapes me haha.
Yea, I’m not worried about it being ‘wrong’ and have a plan mostly setup already and am totally fine making it my own. I am asking to see if others have run it by adding NPCs too so I could get other perspectives and new or different ideas!
It’s possibly not what you’re looking for, if Indeed you still are, but I made a few modifications to it -
The captain, who is found headless in his chair on the bridge, left a final video log file in which he repents the bad things he and his crew have done, but that hopes that his efforts (to destroy The Devourer) will make amends - “Set the controls for the heart of the sun!”. This log is played upon activation of the screen in the Nav room.
The gargantua is actually the ship’s doctor. This can be seen by the rags of her lab coat and a bit of a name tag that is still hanging on.
(possibly not palatable for all, so hidden)
The captain and doctor were an item and a clutch of their eggs litters the engine room.
Players can decide how to re-engage the engines while having to deal with a brood of eggs. For added shenanigans I’d roll on a d6 when an egg was triggered, on a 6 the creature imprints on the nearest player.
Like I said, not many NPCs, sorry.
What kind of characters do you think might be fun to include in your game?
Do it! , and see what happens.
My 2 cents. I ran Red Sword 1 time. I had 4 players. Its quite deadly.
And they didnt even try the gargantua. You got to have alot of power loot to take on the gargantua. So I let them get out with some sparse data records, and pointed the ship to the dark sun. It was a one shot, and everyone included me was new to ICRPG. tho I DM’d D&D ages and ages ago.
The data I was going to have lead them to the Mercury Vale to find the supercomputer. Thae SC would lead them to an as yet undesigned final bad boss hunt on a planet somewhere (which might be a trap by the SC ??).
, and see what happens.